Absolute nonsense you are chatting Jay ! Look how dangerous and potent we looked in that first half when we moved the ball quickly forward to Gyokeres, his hold up/link up play was fantastic, he led the line against the so-called best defence in the league brilliantly, we were magnificent in that first half. He seemed to physically fade in the second half, he got manhandled, is that a fitness thing or the fact Newcastle were doing some WWE rough housing ?!
Bro, that first half was reminiscent of the 2022/23 season when we used to blitz teams with our attack. Newcastle didn't know what him them. Kudos to Arteta for acknowledging the change of tactic was required, we could easily have been 4 up at half time.
If Pope was a CB - they would say he denied Gyokeres a clear goalscoring opportunity. That challenged would have been a foul all day long. (and a red card)
I am commentating on where the ball went to when it was touched by Popes foot. , it wasn’t a certain tap in goal
The reason why the touch is irrelevant (IMO) is because it's not like Pope made a challenge to get the ball first. Gyokeres gets to the ball first, it brushes Pope's foot, which is planted, then there is clear knee-on-thigh contact which made it a penalty. I can show you the contact if you want. Also, just because you get minimal contact on the ball, doesn't mean you can make any challenge you want. A foul is a foul at the end of the day. It wasn't a red card for Pope, but it absolutely was a penalty. It was not a clear and obvious error to overturn the original decision.
It doesn't have to be a tap in or a certain goal, it just needs to be a foul. Fouls are committed and given all over the pitch not just when a goal is on the line. The keeper had forward momentum, there was significant impact with the player after the player and keeper touched the ball.
Give over HH. He literally fell down under pressure and was only moderately successful at holding the ball - he lost more duels than he won. No goals and no assists again. Thats 2 open play goals in 7 games. Liverpool, City, Utd, Newcastle, Athletic - no goals and no assists. Thats not good enough - and if it were anyone else they would be getting flack. He needs to significantly up his game and start contributing in the big games - 3 games in a row a forward has come off the bench and scored where Gyokeres was failing.
Exactly - a touch on the ball does not nullify a foul. Pope rushed out and was second to the ball and in the collision he took Gyokeres out - a pretty clear penalty and iwhilst it's a disgrace that VAR got involved, it's not a surprise. We've seen it time and time again with VAR and Arsenal - over analysing every incident to look for ways to impede us. Something they do not do for their favoured clubs up North. No surprise there either... the PGMOL is a secretive organisation with no oversight and the vast majority of their officials are from the North.
We need to beat the teams we are expected to beat - that has been our downfall in recent years (if you exclude the role of the PGMOL in stopping us winning the league, because that is an annual endeavour on their part). Last year we thrashed City, drew with Utd and Liverpool and lost to Newcastle - 5 pts from 4 games. This year 7 points from the 4 games, so better. We need to take advantage of it now by winning the next few games.
There's a lot of 'creative accounting' going on HH. He didn't have a good game, it was average overall. With Gyokeres, we're expecting a player that elevates us to the next level. That is how he is judged - we never needed a player who will do what he did vs Newcastle. We already had that and better.
I remember Thierry Henry took something like 9 games to score his first Arsenal goal So if you're using those metrics, then Gyokeres with 3 goals in 6 games is currently 1:2 and on target to blow Henry's record out of the water ? Yeah, it doesn't work like that. He's just joined us, we're barely out of September and he's already scored a few and is getting better in each game Have some patience, it often takes time for a player to settle into a new team and league, especially the PL
Henry was 22 yrs old and a winger when he joined Arsenal. He wasn't just settling into a new league as a youngster, he was changing position. Gyokeres is 27 and has been touted as a goal machine that is the answer to winning the title. The expectations are entirely different. They may be unfair expectations, but we've been told for 3 years that we need a striker to score lots of goals, and that is what he has been brought in to do... help us score MORE goals. 2 open play goals in 7 matches is not what was expected. There is still time, obviously, but he needs to start showing he can be the man to make a difference - otherwise what is the point? We were already breaking club goal scoring records without him.
To be fair - expectations set by fans are not what we should be basing our opinions on. Just look at out at the end of the Season - did he have good Season.. did we win anything? those are the metrics. Pinkie is right though he will need time to adjust. (particularly as he had no PreSeason) Ultimately if we hadn't of brought him - with Havertz & Jesus out injured we would be pretty ****ed now. So the signing is already working out. I expect Arteta wants to rotate him with Havertz - different types of players for different games.
He's played 7 games. (its actually 8 if you include the league cup game) 2 open play goals and a penalty. Scoring penalties is not the improvement we needed.
